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What Does The Ending Of Goodnight Mommy Really Mean?

“Sweet cream on an ice cream sandwich! What just happened?” If you’ve just finished watching the psychological horror film Goodnight Mommy (aka Ich seh, Ich seh), you can probably relate to this sentiment. Today, we are going to be talking about the film’s fairly ambiguous ending and what it possibly means. So, needless to say, a SPOILER ALERT is in full effect.

Austrian writer/directors, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala really did come up with quite a brilliant premise here. In the film, Lukas and Elias (Lukas and Elias Schwarz), twin nine year-olds, are awaiting the return of their mother, who has just undergone some sort of facial surgery. When the mother (Susanne Wuest) returns, face heavily bandaged, the two children begin to question her erratic behavior and wonder if it’s really her who came back. What follows is an existential struggle for identity and fundamental trust.

Eventually the boys decide to take matters into their own hands. This leads to the pair ultimately tying her up and essentially torturing her (with a magnifying glass and some super glue) in order to get some answers. In the final moments of the movie it is revealed that, DUN DUN DUN, Lukas has actually been dead the entire time (he died in an unspecified “accident”) and Elias is riding delusionally solo. Finally, Elias is fed up with this woman, whom he is convinced is an imposter, and sets her and their house on fire. The final moments of the film show the fire department doing their job as the camera pans over to Lukas, Elias and their mother all smiling (quite creepily) for the camera. A perfect family portrait.

First off, how exactly did Lukas die? Given the fact that we first meet the mother as she’s heavily bandaged after having surgery, it might be easy to assume that the family was involved in some sort of car accident. This is never explicated stated so there isn’t any real reason to believe that this is the case.

When the boys run away to seek the help of a local priest he promptly drives Elias back home to his mother. She explains to the priest that things have been hard since the “accident” and the “divorce” (which would explain the father’s absence). No more details are given. Towards the end of the film, their mother tells Elias that his brother’s death wasn’t his fault. Why would she feel the need to say that? What the hell happened?

Some have argued that Lukas drowned to death. This is (somewhat) supported early on the film as the two are seen playing in the woods and by the lake. Elias is counting out loud while his brother is underwater, presumably holding his breath. Before he rises from the water we see one final air bubble, perhaps leading us to believe that this was indeed the last moments of Lukas’ life.

However, if this was the case then what was with the mother’s recent surgery? If her accident had nothing to do with her son’s death, then maybe she wasn’t in an accident at all. Perhaps her surgery was simply cosmetic. But then, who feels the need to get a makeover immediately after the death of their son?

Perhaps the surgery is symbolic. After Lukas dies, the mother moves on with her life while Elias cannot. The “new face” is then just a sign of the “moving on”, she has become a “new person” (not their mommy anymore) who will no longer play the game of pretending that Lukas is still alive. Also, how aware is the mother of Elias’ delusions? Did she ever attempt to get him treatment?

Some have argued that Lukas was killed in a fire. This is (somewhat) supported by the fact that the mother flips out when she discovers a lighter in Elias’ room. Also, as the final moments of the movie proves, Elias is more than capable of starting a deadly fire. This would also explain the mother’s surgery, as she would have most likely been a victim as well. Also, the very end scene shows a house burning but it does not seem to be the house that the movie is set in. Maybe it was their previous house.

There are many scenes throughout this film that also demand explanations. Quite randomly, a delivery man swings by the house with a year’s worth of frozen pepperoni pizza. One night, the boys decide to place a cockroach on their mother’s chest while she’s sleeping, and the thing soon makes its way down her gullet.

The boys find a cat, and decide to keep it as a pet. Soon enough, it turns up dead. Did Elias unknowingly kill the cat? In other words, did imaginary Lukas kill the cat just so he could blame it on their mother and further cement her status as the enemy?

There is a constant thread of “uhhh, what?” in just about every scene of this film, from the opening reveal of the bandaged mother to the face-crinkling ending. It’s nutter butters. Though, one of the best things about a movie so open to interpretation is that there’s no real “solution”. And there are, of course, many ways to understand it.

With all that being said, we want to hear from you guys. What did you think of Goodnight Mommy’s rather indistinct conclusion? Do you have your own thoughts, theories, explanations or questions? Let us know in the comment section below.

59 thoughts on “What Does The Ending Of Goodnight Mommy Really Mean?”

I feel like the whole movie is about mental illness. Obviously on Elias’s part, but the Mother as well. I took away from the movie, that the Mother was suffering from severe depression, after “the accident” and the divorce. She was a tv show host, so I feel like she had cosmetic surgery done after the divorce to feel better about herself. The depression also explains why she was acting so strangely and Elias thought she was someone else completely. The divorce came after the death of Lukas is what I gathered. I think “Lukas” Killed the cat, and the Mother bought all of the pizza’s due to her acting strange because of her illness. The ending to me I took two different ways. One being that Elias died in the fire and was reunited with his Mother and Lukas again, and the other being that he lived, and now just like he was seeing his brother, but now his Mother was added to the list. I like how they leave it open to interpretation.

The movie description says that the mom comes home from being in the hospital from a car accident. Not cosmetic and i honestly disnt get the movie. Like the car beetles priest shit i didnt even watch it in english. I dont get the ending at all

Several points:
1. Lukas was killed in the accident that left his mother severely injured.
2. Elias blames her for that death–she separated Lukas from him.
3. Elias is deeply troubled, and when what appears to be almost a stranger comes “home,” he has real doubts. She does not know Lukas’ favorite song, and she appears not to have the facial birth mark from before. There may be an eye-color issue as well.
4. Why is all of this so difficult for Elias? Because his TWIN brother with whom he has shared every intimate detail of his life up to the accident is dead. For a twin that is like dying themselves.
Imagine how devastating it is to lose what seems half of oneself–or one’s best friend. Twins have the closest bond of any pair of humans–the twin is another self, or half of oneself. You have known him so well that you can complete his sentences and think his thoughts. You know where he is when he is not in the same room. You trust your whole being to him, you share every secret, in fact you have no secrets from him. Watch how the two look at each other in the movie–pure love. Elias hopes that if he gets his real mother back (in his mind at least), then he will also get Lukas back.

Some interesting points which has helped me put together some thoughts. The movie is an allegory about the emotional and mental toll put on children by divorce or some other kind of family trauma and fracture. The boy thinks his mother is an impostor because she no longer represents the mother he knew, the one of the united family. (Her “face” has changed just as the family’s face has changed.) This causes fear, resentment, distrust and anger which he resolves by putting an end to the change. The deaths at the end are symbolic of a desire for reunification, the way things used to be.

I think the point of the movie is that there is no point trying to attach clarity to an ambiguous story. What for? It didn’t happen anyway. The are only messages and the message here is disfunctional depressed parents make kinds pile up emotions under their innocent appearance that eventually express themselves very violently either against the subject or against others.

Well the theory is that Lukas died on a certain time before the movie began, you may also remember the part where they “play” a song on a tape recorder or radio or whatever the hell that was, it sounded like it was a recorded message, like she sent that message to him while she was at the hospital, thus this being a “new” song she decided to start to sing for Elias she could have never imagined that “Lukas” would like it too.

Thank you for your intelligent review. This is the only review that I came across online they didn’t focus on the fact that the movie had a twist ending. Other reviewers seem to not know that the brother Lucas was in fact not really there. I think you would have to be blind or stupid to not know within the first 20 minutes that Lucas was not really there or an imaginary friend or imaginary brother. The guy coming in to deliver all the pizzas is revealing to the fact that the mom is planning on sting inside for quite some time. The aggressiveness of the Red Cross is symbolic to how much in need the family was but those in need often or ignored or forgotten.

Not nice to name call. It’s not that serious. Maybe before openly judging others’ opinions, reviews and interpretations of a movie on a discussion board, try proofreading and editing.
To add, I am both blind and stupid and was fully able to realize Lukas was not truly there within the first 3 minutes of the movie! Perhaps this realization can be attributed to the fact that I, too, plan on “sting inside for quite some time”.

The movie never tells us how much time passes between the drowning and the plastic surgery. It becomes apparent that the mother had been enabling her son’s delusions for quite some time, and chose the surgery as the time to put a stop to it. Bad idea, as it turned out.

She ordered that pizza because she was secluding herself and her son. It shows us how unwilling the mother was to get her son help. Instead of reaching out for help, she went into isolation, which only speeded her son’s descent into madness.

My rather complicated, but probably incorrect theory is that the mother really was an imposter, and the imposter killed the real mother and Lukas somehow. The imposter got plastic surgery to look like the mother and take her place in a wealthy household. No father present to question it. The happy ending of two ghosts in the end with Elias, makes me think of the scene at the end of Return of the Jedi where all vindicated parties show up to enjoy the Ewok party.

Ok, the movie is simple, it’s about capitalism, the two boy are the lef and the right, it up to you to decide, the mother is what is become since the absence of father (god) the kids used to missed how good was to play with the father, this is a connotation of how kids are so numb to the idea of a friendly childish god, while the mom, an earthly figure divirece him, this leaves maybe the mother (earth) our planet, country maybe, alone and taking care of their children, one who rises to power in delusion and other dead looking to avenge the mother he once knew, now the tricky part it’s the way the two sides of power, childrens, are represented as friends, maybe beacause that’s what they still are, kids, but you can see separations are emerging, exeptc towards the end when they decide to burn it all up, it is a metaphors of how we are destroying this land, our country, our principle, our planet, capitalism, portrayed by the red cross in the movie , do whatever they want, enter open house, search for things, and will not leave without money, they don’t care, and are always not there when needed even if it a coincidence the earth is muted by its own children, so there you go. Easy

No I think this is the only good review of this movie. Jorge is right and you will notice the signs all throughout the movie – there are crucifixes everywhere. Also the reoccurrence of water which symbolises life. And fire. The opposite. Almost demonic – like the tribal/demon-like masks the boys wore. You need to look deeper than just the plot we have been given.

One word…..NO! Nice soliloquy, but try not to manipulate your own personal ideology into an interpretation that has absolutely nothing to do with this movie. I respect your evaluation but feel that it couldn’t be further from the truth, (or the actual theme of this film).

“Why are Red Cross volunteers in Austria so pushy?” Bhahaha! I was thinking that too, not only do they just walk into and around people’s houses uninvited, but then, not ask but insist on waiting for a parent to come home to collect their money? Jesus, lol….

I don’t think it could be that she had surgery because she was disfigured in a car accident because they do show pictures of her pre-op with the markings for surgery and she looks normal, not like she’s getting reconstructive surgery from an accident that left her face disfigured.

Probably from the fire… I think she is returning home after the incident. The movie goes back in time in the middle to explain why she was in bandages. They never said she died in the fire… Probably had severe burns and had reconstructive surgery. I picked up that she was afraid of Elias in the beginning and a little harsh on him… Wouldn’t you be if your child tried to burn you to death? It’s just my synopsis.

Actually when you watch the movie a second time, the whole story becomes very clear. In the beginning the two boys are playing followed by the scene of Lukas’s drowning. Yes, Lukas drowned, that fact is later established with a subtle hint later.
So, In the beginning the mother acts pretty normal after the surgery, I think her surgery thing was actually her very desperate attempt to make it back to her previous TV career that she might have dropped after Lukas’s death and her divorce.
The turning point in the story is when Elias is doing chorus and she is talking on the phone saying something like “I have other worries. I can’t play along anymore. He has to face it.” At that point she decides to let Elias slowly seep into reality that Lukas is dead.
The next thing, Elias finds the cat dead. Now, the actual thing that happens here is that the cat is not actually dead before Elias finds it and puts it in water. HE ACTUALLY DROWNS THE CAT TO DEATH. This actually symbolizes Lukas’s drowning and death. At this point, the mother actually had enough and knowing his son’s condition she takes Elias into his room, scolds him and says “I am not playing along anymore. From now on there will be only one breakfast and one set of cloths. Promise me you’ll never talk to you Brother again!” Slaps him.
The next scene she actually feels very guilty for being harsh on him and cries for a while. But at that point Elias actually loses his mind as when she actually stops playing along pretending Lukas is still there, he in his mind thinks that she is not her mother but someone else as she doesn’t recognize/acknowledge Lukas’ presence. This is things go nuts.
The next morning the mother removes the bandages, gets a toy for Elias to actually make up for her being harsh on him last night. She at this point, intends to start over with her child with a normal life without Lukas! But he runs away and his delusion still remains that she is not her mother because she doesn’t acknowledge Lukas’ presence.
The next thing, he ties her up and starts torturing his mother. There are several scenes where he is convinced that she is actually her mother and tries to cut her lose, but Lukas doesn’t let him. He looks for contacts in the Bathroom when Lukas beats him etc. At this point it is actually Lukas’ memory that is forcing him to torture her and get her previous mother who actually acknowledged Lukas’ presence.

Now, Finally the final scene where Elias is turned into a real psychopath and is ready to burn her mum alive. She says “Elias, lets make a deal. I’ll play along again. I’ll talk to Lucas again. I’ll make breakfast for both of you, put cloths out for both of you. I’ll do everything like before, but believe me I’m your Mother!” But at this point Elias has gone too far. Lukas was never there the whole time but in Elias’ Mind he is actually alive. He goes on to ask her “What is Lukas doing?” and she says “I can’t see him!”. This finally makes him believe she is not her mother and he burns her alive!

So, the whole story is about how the mother first keeps up with Elias’ Delusion for his brother. But as soon as she stops pretending, Elias loses his mind and starts believing she is not his mother and does all these things.

Now, the very last scene where all three are smiling and standing there is that kind of bitter sweet ending where you can either believe that all three are dead and together in afterlife which is the sweet part. In the bitter part, you can believe that through killing the assumed Imposter mom, Elias finds his real mum in his mind just like Lukas. Now Elias moves on with not just Lukas in his mind but also his mum. The last part is all up to the viewers.

Dyapreet Singh, I honestly think you wrote the best explanation I have read for this movie. You nailed it! Your explanation makes more sense than any YouTube review and everything else out there. The movie indeed did show how Elias slowly becomes a psychopath. The mother is depressed and neglects her son which leads to her ultimate demise. And when she decides to show sympathy for Elias, it is already too late.

Dyapreet Singh – I just finished watching the movie and I’ve been searching for a decent explanation. You’ve honestly written the best review/explanation I’ve found anywhere. I can finally move on to the next movie now.

Dyapreet Singh, I honestly think you wrote the best explanation I have read for this movie. You nailed it! Your explanation makes more sense than any YouTube review and everything else out there. The movie indeed did show how Elias slowly becomes a psychopath. The mother is depressed and neglects her son which leads to her ultimate demise. And when she decides to show sympathy for Elias, it is already too late.

I think people have the movie synopsis all wrong. I think the mother in the bandages is the her returning home after the fire incident. The film never said she died and it would explain the scars on her back. In the middle of the film, when she gives Elias the boomerang, the film goes back in time. It explains why she was bandaged up and how Elias was not recovering from the death of his brother. Upon her return home after the fire, she avoids Elias… Trying to rebuild a relationship with him but obviously a little scared of him at the same time. It’s why she locks herself in her room and buys him all those pizzas. She’s also in a state of depression and probably doesn’t know what to do… Waiting for Elias to recover but obviously he isn’t because he still talks to Lukas. As a mother, could you lock your child up after he tried to burn you or would you try to make things well?

Hi Guys. I was really impressed by the movie. I’ve seen it two times now and wanted to right down some thoughts about it. So this is more to check if some of the ideas that I got from it resonates with other people. I have to admit, if one doesn’t have the same cultural background or baggage, it probably feels less rich then it is. But the movie is full of hidden treasures that I want to share and maybe get to view or think about the film a second time.
So there are a few points that I want to touch upon.
– The landscape in which the boys are wondering around.
– The painting of the woman in front of the window.
– How the boys in relation to the mother are photographed.
– The original title in German. Ich seh, Ich seh (which gives away more of what’s going on then the English title)
– How Christian symbolism was used.
– And the magnifying glass
So the boys go and wonder around the house in this Austrian landscape. Which to me gave some obvious historical references. The cave were they found the cat on what seemed to be a pile of skulls and bones, the Holocaust. The walk along the railroad, the railroad system that was used during the Holocaust. And the man in the burning field. The farmer was used a lot in 20th century nationalist propaganda).
Now the photography of the boys in relationship to their mother is an interesting one, because this led me see the movie in a more clearer light. It’s very present and repeated a lot true out the movie, but kind of hidden in juxtaposed images and images in them self. It’s probably the most clear in the last scene of the movie, where the mother stands in between her twins with her arms on their shoulders. There, I think, is clearly an angel depicted. The twins being the wings and the mother then of course the body. Now if you look back at the film you will see this image of an angel reccurring a lot. Juxtaposed images where in one image with the twins are framed with space in between an the other image with the mother placed central of them. Or simply within the image itself where the mother is framed central with something that visually hinds at wings.
So this image of the angel along with the (historical) landscape made me think of Walter Benjamin and his concept of history. It’s a kind of allegory based on a painting he saw of Paul Klee called Angelus Novus. Here is a excerpt from wiki.
A Klee painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.
The Painter Paul Klee is I think also important for this movie, because not only use this image of the angel but I think they kind of used his vision. He used a mythical surrealistic childlike style to comment or express his anxieties about the political climate during and after WW 1. If you look at his painting, especially the one called “With the eagle”. There is a lot of elements of him being used throughout the movie. The forest, the eagle (the eagle is a symbol of German nationalism) and the house. Spherical shapes like the eye, the moon, football and the trampoline. They even emphasize it with the salami pizza scene.
Now the painting that’s present in a lot of shots also kind of relates to this. What’s fascinating about it is that we cannot see if the woman is looking out of the window or back at us. I am not a hundred percent sure of the origin of the painting. But it reminded me a lot of a post war German Painter Gerhard Richter, who used photorealism but obscured portraits by blurring them kind of similar how one does with a camera lens.
Now this gives away a little of the dynamic that is present true out the whole movie. And how they for instance used pairs. The title, ich seh, ich seh ( I see, I see). Two events, WW 1, WW 2. Two styles or ways of expressing, Paul Klee, Gerard Richter. And the twins (Gemini).
The last thing I want to bring up, is how they used religious imagery. In the sequence the priest brings them home, they’re a few shots of silhouette crosses in the sky. In the car hanging on the rearview mirror. And on a pole standing next to the road they drive on. If you look at both images in a more formal, it’s a black gap/abyss in the sky in the shape of cross (also used by Klee in paintings). This to me is an image depicting the loss of Christian religion.
Also if you look closely at role of the father(God) in the movie, he shines in absence. He is literally taken out of the picture book that represents the lives of the family.
In the narrative of the movie, the twins question their mothers identity, investigating her. At a certain point quit literal putting a magnifying glass upon her. And torturing her in this act with the concentrated light bundle. Disfiguring her face again.
This relates to the post war generation discovering what their parents and grandparents were involved in during WW2. A common way to answer questions about their role during or knowledge of the holocaust was, “Wir haben es nicht gewusst”. What is translated as, we didn’t know. They just wanted to forget the war and move on with their lives, but were painfully and fanatically confronted their children and grandchildren.
So I hope these ideas, observations made a little sense somewhere. And that the concept of the movie got a little more clear. And I’ll end this all with two quotes from Nietzsche. One quote relates to the religious imagery and the other relates to the magnifying glass.
“God is dead”
” He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”
.

I believe that the lady is indeed not their mom, but ”the twin” from the picture, sent by some agency, institution or whatever, to cover for the real mom, who is actually guilty for ”the accident” and serving her sentence or whatever, and Lucas knows it all along.
The lady is there to provide a normal future for Elias, the child who is suffering severe traumas after everything that happened, and she is playing his mom along.
”the surgery” is just a coverup, so Elias can get used to it.
There is just enough proof that she is NOT his mother: a birthmark, the song, her strange acting all along etc, but the color of her eyes – that is just too weird. I mean, they have never presented us those lenses.
Yes, Elias is in doubt about who she is from time to time, but Lucas just KNOWS who she is and what she has done.

About the pizza: the kids ordered it. Elias loves pepperoni pizza. He confirmed it. They had prepared their stock for what is going to happen.

Please, respond. I would really like to know if I’m right or wrong.
Thanks. 🙂

One more proof that she is not the mother: in the scene when they are playing the guessing game (I don’t know the name of the game in English 🙂 ), she has absolutely no clue about who ”MAMA” is, as it is written on the paper on her forehead.
”how could I know who has two children? Do I know her?” – ”yes.”
And then, silence, without her reasponse.
The author of the movie did it symbolically, right?

She doesn’t know about the two children, because she doesn’t have 2 children anymore… or maybee… oooh.. there were never two boys… it’s all in Elias mind!! That’s why she says i will play again… maybe a twin brother that was never born? or died as a baby!?

I like the theory actually, at least it makes more sense to me now, but i have two very important questions:

1.What is the mothers birth mark, they told her to show them her birth mark, but she never did, and it couldn’t be that dot on her face, because if that was her birth mark then why did they tell her to show them? (i know Lukas is dead but i need to write in plural for some reason)

2.Who is that woman on the picture? did their mother have a twin as well? it can’t be a friend, i mean, they are pretty similar.

My Theory
what if the lady in the picture really is her twin and replaced her for some reason?
Like the real mother died and she decided to take her place to take care of Ellias and to get to live on that beautiful house?
That could explain her weird behavior, her failure at the guessing game, her violence, the missing birth mark and the change of eye color, why would she have to change her eye color?

My interpretation was that everything “evil” that happened revolved around the creepy shadow painting hanging in the living room, the one of the non-descript mansitting with an arm on his knee, looking forward.

It was a freaky painting to have hanging in your living room and it really stood out it was in shot. I associated this painting as the evil element in the movie, the object that allows something awful and dark into the house and lives of the family. They were already messed up after the accident and the mother’s odd mothering style anyway so they were easy prey.

Maybe I watch too many horror movies but it seemed like the cat was ‘the offering’ to dark side, giving it power and more influence. In the final scences the painting is so prominent behind Elias, actually leaning on his head – its hand extending into his head, influencing him. Then Lukas steps out from behind Elias, almost stepping out from the painting; Lukas, via the the painting, is “evil” manifesting itself.

The fish tank of petrol sets on fire in front of the painting, like an altar, and then we see the flaming cat in its own shot and finally the painting fall into the fire. Job done.

It just seemed to fit horror movie tropes: prominence of the object in camera shots, darkness, solitary shadowy male figure, dead animal placed in front of it, the way it was incorporated into the final fire scene as a background and then consumed by the fire it created.

There will probably be a sequel where the painting “mysteriously” turns up some new family’s house and their ensuing fight against the evil spirits within it. Joking a bit there but kind of not – did no one else see it like this?

The house at the end of the movie is the same house the entire movie was set in, it’s just shot from a different angle.
I think why the pizza man said they ordered too many pizzas is presumably because Elias ordered the amount for “3” person because he counted “Lukas” in.
And I think the mom got plastic surgery purely because her face had been damaged from the accident?
And also the scene where the mom went into the woods naked is just a part of Elias’ hallucinations/dreams.

Then again I must add, when the priest takes the boys back to the house, the mother says it was too much because of the accident and the “getrennt” – this word in german means ‘separation’ not divorce. This was off course intended to be dubious, since she could be clearly talking about the separation between brothers, or a divorce.
And this is clear mistake in the analisys of the main review

When the house was fully on fire and the firemen were there, did you see the woman who appeared on the left corner of the screen, observed for a few seconds what happens and disappeared in the cornfield? Then the leaves of the cornfield move, without us seeing but the moves, the two boys emerge from it and join their real mother (I think she was dead already and the one who died in the fire was an imposter) with real happiness on their faces. So, Elijah died in the fire too and joined his dead twin and his real mother in an imaginary world.

I just watched it for the second time. I picked up more this time. I believe Lukas was killed in the car crash that disfigured the Mother, and Elias blames himself, for unknown reasons, and loses touch with the real world and kills both himself and his Mother in the fire. The last scene is they are all reunited in death.